Sword Art Online: Shattered Glass
by SirLeaf
Summary: Sword Art Online was launched on November 6th, 2022... and countless players have died since then, even more are still stuck in the virtual world of Aincrad. Tyzaren, is one of these such players, stuck, but surviving. Follow Tyzaren as well as several others as they decide whether or not they want to be free of this world, or if they want to live in it for as long as possible...
1. Chapter 1: The Death Game

**Author's Note:**

 **Hey all! First of all, thanks for showing some interest in my FanFiction, Sword Art Online: Shattered Glass.**

 **Secondly, I won't waste much of your time up here and instead save extra info at the end of the Chapter, but before we start we need to establish some changes to canon of SAO.**

 **-Shattered Glass takes place as if Hollow Fragment actually happened. Kirito didn't defeat Heathcliff on floor 75 due to a Glitch.**

 **-The Glitch does NOT prevent players from accessing all cleared floors. Floors 1-75 are accessible.**

 **-Beta Players were hunted to near extinction, despite those who came forward to help beat the game (ex. Kirito).**

 **-Several more 'Unique Skills' have surfaced.**

 **-Bows and Crossbows have become slightly normal occurrence due to said 'Unique Skills'.**

 **-Main Character is an OC, and is non-SAO-canon.**

 **-Most canon SAO will be in Shattered Glass, and keeping up with Hollow Fragment rules, so will Leafa and Sinon and Strea.**

 **Everything else still stands! Enjoy the read and stay tuned after the Chapter for an End Note!  
Disclaimer: I own nothing, but any bit of original work is of my own design.**

* * *

"I've always liked the sunshine."

Tyzaren opened one eye and squinted in the face of the exceedingly bright sun projecting light down onto him and his companion on floor 22. Tyzaren rolled his head to the left and stared at his companion, noting the large smile on his face,

"Yea? You think this one feels the same as the real one?"

Tyzaren's companion leaned his head back and closed his eyes, a long sigh parting from his lips, "I dunno..." He muttered at last, falling onto his elbows and then the grass, "Nothing felt real at the beginning, but, it's been so long how can we even tell? I don't remember what 'real' food tastes like, do you?"

Tyzaren looked back up at the virtual sun and shook his head, "No, I don't." He closed his eyes and shift his weight for a more comfortable position along the hillside. Today, Aincrad's weather settings were relatively high, higher than they had been in awhile. Tyzaren and his companion had taken the pleasant weather as an excuse to not engage in strenuous leveling or scouting, but instead find a nice spot to relax.

Just a few minutes of walking from the floor 22 teleport gate proved to do the trick. Floor 22 was pretty forested, lots of tall pines and no field bosses to worry about. It was also dotted with a few lakes and hills which provided the perfect place to lay in the sun.

"Hey Tyzaren?"

"Yes Dioux?"

"You know what's cool?"

Tyzaren smiled, sensing his friends ADHD kicking in, "What's cool Dioux?"

"That even here, in the virtual world, dark colors absorb the most heat from the sun."

Tyzaren shook his head and sat up, using his hands to prop himself up on the hillside, "Why doya say that?"

"Because." Dioux said standing, "It's really, really hot out."

Tyzaren let out a short laugh as he reach up with his right hand to rub the back of his head. He looked up at Dioux, his companion and laughed again, seeing him holding the seams of his pants as if they were generating heat. Tyzaren continued to smile at his friend, watching him pat himself down as if to see if some parts of his armor were warmer than others.

Dioux was wearing black pants with knee pads sewn into them. He had knee high boots that were also black, and had metal plates on the arch and ankle area's. Above his belt which doubled as a bandolier, he wore a dark green undershirt with leather armor plating resting atop of it. Finally was Dioux's cape, a dark green that drooped to his knees and at the top near his right shoulder a bow peaked out from under it. If you looked carefully, you could even see the hilt of a dagger sticking out from his left boot. He looked like your stereotypical archer, minus the scruffy blonde hair, bright, childlike green eyes and goldfish-length attention span.

Tyzaren stood as well, mirroring his friends stance, posting most of his weight on his left hip and crossing his arms.

Dioux looked up from his pants and observed his friend, smiling at the fact that he was being mimiced.

Tyzaren doned similar armor to Dioux. Black pants with sewn in knee pads, as well as identical boots. The differences starting at Tyzaren's belt, one side hung lower than the other in a swashbuckler fashion, and the side that drooped hung a small hand-held Crossbow. Tyzaren's shirt was white, leather armor plating along the shoulders and arms but the chestplate, metal and shiny. Tyzaren wore an overcoat that was darkly colored, mostly black but with some grey patches on it, working like a camouflage. Tyzaren's face was that of a young man, blue eyes and short black hair that was swooped to right. Only other thing of notice was the one-handed sword that hung from his left hip.

The two looked at eachother smiling, the same thought crossing their minds. This was what they've always wanted. In reality, they always dreamt of living a life of adventure and fun and basically how they wanted. In the virtual world… the game world, it was a reality. A separate reality. Only thing is… this reality was just as real as the other.

On November 6th, 2022… 10,000 players logged onto the worlds first Virtual Reality MMORPG, Sword Art Online… and since then, they've been trapped in a death game. Unlike normal games… Death in Sword Art Online was real. By some means of technology, the very device which was a dream come true to thousands, the NerveGear, was also a nightmare, a tool of death, a way out, each player's own grim reaper.

It's been two years since then. Two whole years, landing them somewhere in 2024, and they have seen their fair share of what the death game brings out… hell they even helped hunt down some of the beta players when they were still 'At large'. Finally though… the two have started to make their own life here. They had a house on floor 75, in Arc Sophia, plenty of Col and they each had a set of extra skills, Dioux that being an Archer, and Tyzaren being able to utilize hand Crossbows.

The two finally looked out towards the distance of floor 22, and they sighed in unison, "Y'know." Dioux started, "Would it be so bad?"

"Would what be so bad?" Tyzaren inquired, already knowing where the question was going,

"Would just living here be so bad? Not clearing the game."

Tyzaren looked down and actually questioned it himself, for the first time. Every player had been focussed on clearing the game or hiding in fear… but as the time went by, a vast majority of the players became accustomed to living in the virtual world, no intention of leaving.

Eventually word got around that they were all hospitalized and eventually, they'd die in reality if they didn't die in the virtual world. Many players made peace with that but… for others it motivated them more.

"It would be," Tyzaren stated, "It would be bad. We'd die in reality… no matter how much we like this world, it's not our own… besides. We'd get bored here. Eventually, as players die and time lingers on, clearing the game will be everyone's priority. Everyone here, who is still alive? We're all gamers. In the end, we'll do what we bought the game for."

"To play."

"Exactly."

* * *

 **End Note:  
Alright! Thanks for reading the first chapter! This is indeed my first publication of a Fanfiction, and I'm looking for any and all types of feedback! (Negative or Positive. Preferably Constructive). Moreover, I'm opening up some room for OC's! Here's the planning table of OC's.**

Name:

Appearance:

Weapon Preference?:

Personality:

Any Extra skills?:

Bit of Backstory:

Wish you all luck! And thanks again! (Note, OC's will definitely come in, in some of the later chapters, appearances will vary based on how fast they come in and the amount.)


	2. Chapter 2: Arc Sophia

**Author's Note:**

 **Welcome to Chapter two of Sword Art Online: Shattered Glass! Nothing else to say other than enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing, but any bit of original work is of my own design.**

* * *

Arc Sophia was a pretty large city. Not as big as Algade on floor 50, and not nearly as large as the Starting City on floor 1, but still fairly large. Arc Sophia was primarily split into three district like area's. The first being the Teleport Gate area, it was a small park that housed the teleport gate and the main majority of quest giver NPC's. The second area was the market area, nearly all the NPC shops and even a good amount of player shops reside here. Finally, the remainder of the city was mostly player houses, random NPC shops, restaurants, there was a park hidden somewhere amongst the buildings, and other assorted things that were still waiting to be discovered.

Dioux and I lived in one of the few apartment buildings in Arc Sophia. Despite how regal the city was, there was a lot of modernization being implemented by the players. For instance, the apartment buildings. Of course, these weren't the huge red bricked buildings you see in the real world that house over 40 families, no. These apartment buildings took a large house, split it into halves or thirds, and players could buy a section as an apartment. Of course you could buy the building too, but Arc Sophia isn't cheap. Our apartment alone cost us each nearly 450,000 Col, and that's not including furniture, which we spared no expense on.

We wanted to feel at home, we didn't want to just buy the only thing a house was good for in this world, sleep and safety. Every player still needs to give their brain time to rest, so you needed to sleep. You can always buy a room at an inn, or sleep on a bench in the street, but… You could be killed that way. Homes were the safest, and they came with a kitchen and bedroom, so what's not to like?

The downfall however laid with the pricing, protection isn't cheap here in Aincrad, not to mention that most players bought a house and stopped there. They left all the rooms empty and just used the kitchen and bed provided, spending the rest of their time leveling or doing whatever else they do. Dioux and I couldn't live like that, and at first we tried. But around the third night of coming home from leveling to a vast, empty place… it was time to get furniture and decor.

Our building was split in half, and if we bought the other side of the house, we'd be broke, but the divider would dematerialize from the middle of the house. You can't even really tell there's a divider anyway, the home was almost designed to be split in half. If anything, the only way you can tell is at night when you sit in the living room, you'll hear the other players in the other side of the house chatting in their living room.

First floor was simple. You walk into a nice foyer, and to the immediate right was the living room. The living room had three chairs, one in each corner except the far right corner, which housed a lamp. In the center of the back wall was a nice couch, green, matching the rug.

Just beyond the foyer, directly in front of you was a hallway that lead to the kitchen. Once standing in the kitchen, you could turn right and enter the dining room, which also lead back into the living room at the front of the house.

To the left of the foyer was the stairway upstairs. At the top of the stairs you'd be in a small lobby area that lead off into three rooms. To the right, my room, the center, Dioux's, and to the left, our planning room. We didn't know what exactly to do with the third room, and we didn't need it for storage, we each had two chests in our personal rooms that could house hundreds of items, plus the space in our inventories. So we bought a simple wooden table, and a floor map, and a couple armor stands and weapon racks, it was our planning room.

The armor stands is where we leave any armor we're not using, currently upgrading, or just memorable sets. Each of us had three lining either side of the room. We each used one stand for our default armor that was randomized and given to us at the start of the game… Dioux and I, we tried to go as far as was safe without buying new gear so when we finally did, we could afford better quality gear, it worked out alright, but was less than we were hoping for.

For me, I used the second armor stand for a set of armor I used to fight a floor boss with on the 38th floor. It was a mean sucker, a huge spider that had naturally armored legs, and could lob poison cannonballs at you from a good distance away. When I bought the armor from another player, he didn't empty the pouches on the belt. When I took a poison cannonball to the chest and was slowly dying of poison, I found an anti-poison crystal in the pouch, saved my life. Now I just hold a sort of sentimental attachment to it.

The third stand, at least for me, only had metal chestplate on it, in the center of the chestplate was a crest, just an empty crest. I have it there just for fun, Dioux and I wanted to start a guild once, but we never pulled through, and I was thinking of designs for our symbol. But when the idea fell through, I just left what I had on the stand, a little reminder if we ever thought about it in the future.

On Dioux's side, he had his starting armor, a set of armor he got from getting the last hit bonus on floor 49's boss, it was stark white and pretty much glowed. His third stand was empty, only placing his current set of armor on it every now and then just to admire it.

In the center of the room, the table with the floor map. The floor map wasn't cheap, after searching nearly 30 floors for someone selling the damn thing, they wanted to charge us 1,000,000 Col. The things are only utilized by guilds mostly, and the large ones at that. Not to mention the guilds usually have a player skilled in making one so they get it for cheap.

Floor maps are one of the most useful items in Sword Art Online. It's a map with a virtual interface. You can select any floor that's been cleared and observe the entire layout from a top view, not to mention any landmarks or towns players have scouted out will be marked. It's the best way to navigate around Aincrad, and all you have to do to update it is bring it to a floor's teleport gate, and it'll update.

These maps are essential when scouting a new floor, it helps everyone track the safest way to the dungeon on that floor, not to mention any extra areas that might be of interest such as places to mine, to grind mobs, anything really.

We were able to talk the guy down to 600,000 only after besting him in three duels… and that basically ran us down out of the rest of our combined money. Between the both of us? We probably have 286,000. Which is nothing considering a basic sword to use on floor 75 cost nearly 560,000. But that's why we came home, time to clear out our storages.

* * *

In front of me lay several items. I was sitting on the floor of my room, nothing special, just a bed in the corner by the window, a dresser and a wardrobe along the right wall, and a mirror above the dresser. Two chests along the opposite wall and their tops open, all of their contents sprawled out in front of me,

" _I've hoarded a ridiculous amount of items since the we've moved in."_ I smiled at the thought, seeing how much progress we've made. There was a ton of stuff in front of me, various potions and crystals I had forgot about, some weapons, a few really old packets of food, a few armor pieces, a couple of player items such as recording messages and stuff like that, there was a good amount of stuff.

I shrugged and packed nearly all of it into my inventory, throwing the potions and crystals I wanted to keep into the chests along with the player items, and collecting everything else with a point and a push of the 'Take' key.

Standing and feeling slightly heavier than before, I exited my room and came into the upstairs lobby. Dioux's room door was wide open, so I figured he was already downstairs. I made my way down after him, slowly coming down the stairs and turning into the living room where he was sitting on a chair,

"Hey," He started, "You all set?"

I nodded, "'Course. Let's get going, yeah?"

Dioux stood after a quick nod and headed for the door, opening it and making his way out onto the cobblestone layered streets of Arc Sophia.

Locking the door behind us, I hopped down the few steps that led to our doorway and starting walking alongside Dioux.

The streets of Arc Sophia were busy per usual, floor 75 being the most recently cleared floor, almost a hundred or so players must've been up here already, and along with the constant NPC traffic, the streets were pretty busy.

Dioux and I made our way towards a smith shop we shopped at a lot, in the market district of Arc Sophia. Once we got there a brown haired, bright eyed girl in a green sales uniform stepped out from around the corner of the counter,

"I'll go get the shop owner for you!"

"Thank you very much!"

I turned towards Dioux who had called a thank you after her,

"She's out of your league." I stated flatly, to which I received a shove that nearly sent me tumbling into a weapon rack,

"Hop off Tyzaren…"

I was briefly contained in a fit of laughter when the shop owner came out from a door near the back. Trying to contain my amusement, I cleared my throat and approached her with a smile,

"Lisbeth, good to see you."

The shop owner was a woman as well, of average height with nicely cut, short, pink hair and bright brown eyes that held a certain air of authority in them. She wore a red long sleeved shirt with white cuffs at the end, and a skirt to match. And as typical for a blacksmith, she wore a nice white apron over her front to keep her clothes from getting singed,

"Hello again!" Lisbeth slide behind the counter as she greeted us, "What can I do for you guys today? New weapons? I haven't made any since last visit, been all requests really since we set up on floor 76… If you guys want I can set up an order form-"

"That's alright." Dioux interrupted, "We're actually here to sell today."

Lisbeth narrowed her eyes and a smile spread across her face, "Sell huh? Let's see what you've got."

We laid out the weapons and armor we were getting rid of on the counter in front of Lisbeth, the majority of them materializing atop each other. At first Lisbeth started to protest that this was all lower leveled gear and we countered that argument as well,

"You're a blacksmith," I started, "You always need materials. Just buy the armor and weapons off us for cheap and you'll get a bunch of materials out of them. Plenty you can re-purpose into your current work."

"Alright… Alright… How's this look for everything?" Lisbeth slide a trade screen over in front of us with an amount of Col being offered,

"Done." I hit accept immediately and all the weapons and armor de-materialized from the counter. I then turned to my right, towards Dioux and opened a trade screen with him, offering him half of the Col we just earned.

Dioux's brow formed into a frown as he hit the accept key, but his change of mood vanished nearly as quickly as the trade screens did as he turned back to face Lisbeth,

"Thanks again Lisbeth."

"Please," Lisbeth stepped around the corner of the counter and placed her hands on her hips, "It's Liz. And no problem! Swing by if you get anything interesting or if you need new gear." She then turned with a wave and headed back towards the door near the back of her shop,

"H-Hey Liz?"

She stopped and turned around, looking at Dioux. I was looking at him too, an eyebrow raised. I didn't think he had the courage to-

"Are you… Ah, doing anything later?"

" _Wow. Way to be forward."_ I let out an inward sigh and crossed my arms with a smirk, turning my head and awaiting Lisbeth's response,

Lisbeth stood in place for a few moments, almost in mid step, looking a bit shocked. Her eyes however, never lost that authoritative glow. She finally smiled and placed her hands on her hips once more,

"I am actually, I'm going to meet up with some friends."

Dioux shrugged in response, "Ah, Alright. I was just wonder-"

"However," She interrupted walking towards Dioux, "I'll be free after that, if you're not doing anything that late." A screen appeared in front of Dioux, a friend request.

Dioux smiled and accepted the request, "Sure! I'll message you?"

"Alright." Lisbeth smiled and giggled, turning towards me, "I might as well add you too, you guys are around enough."

I nodded and smiled as well, hitting accept, "Thanks."

* * *

"I can't believe that worked."

I was shoved again, sidestepping into another player. Through a fit of laughter I apologized and fell back into step next to Dioux,

"I'm sorry, it's just that you were SO forward. I can't believe she walked into it."

Dioux let out a sigh, "Who was it who told me that if you want something, go and get it?"

I stopped and stared at Dioux in wonder, "I was talking about items! Not women!"

"Oh please, just give it a rest Ty! I don't see you with any big eyed sword maidens!"

My fit of laughter ended nearly as soon as it started, "Ouch." I crossed my arms, "Besides, I'm not looking for a relationship, I'm married to my crossbow."

Dioux mirrored my stance and crossed his arms as well, "Yeah? Something a loner would say."

My smiled slowly formed into a grin as a screen appeared in front of my eyes, "Really? Right here? In the middle of the street?"

Dioux fingered the end of his bowstring expectantly, "Yeah, right here. I've got some things I wanna get off my chest."

I shrugged, moving my hand to hover over the accept button, "We have a backyard y'know. Besides, don't we have some more items to pick up?" The screen disappeared to be replaced by a new one,

" **DUEL CANCELLED."**

Dioux threw his hands up in the air in frustration, "Fine. But as soon as we get home…"

"Sure," I said, jogging to catch up to him, "You'll tear me limb from limb? Want me to message Lisbeth? Maybe she can watch the duel?"

Once again, I was contained in another fit of laughter as I was sent spiraling to the other side of the street.

* * *

The smirk that was currently spread across my face was more than just one of pleasure, of enjoyment. It was a smirk of determination, placed upon someones face in the heat of battle. Dioux and I have been going back and forth for the past twenty minutes. We've been sharing parries and shoves along with a massive amount of twirling, ducking and dodging.

The downside to our duels was the fact that Dioux had a bow, and I had a crossbow. Our agility skills were through the roof, not because we were fast runners, but because we have developed such a quick response time through our duels and exploits that we tacked up the necessary skill points to become proficient fighters.

At first, neither of us stood a chance at dodging a bolt or arrow, we'd be pelted and sent flying backwards or stumble depending on the range. Now it was relatively easy to dodge the others projectile as long as you saw it coming. If you turned and the other had already fired, the chances of dodging were slim to none.

Dioux and I were face to face, standing about ten meters apart from each other, each breathing heavily, our health bars each below full but no where near yellow. Unlike me, Dioux had a stoic expression, revealing nothing other than the fact that he was out of breath, just like me.

To be honest, Dioux had the upperhand at the moment, he did in most of our duels. Dioux had the skill that allowed him to use a bow, and bows unlike crossbows, use an additional skill along with their base stats. Crossbows have a base stat, and they can be upgraded to do more damage and better accuracy and the like, most of the skill was self-developed through practice. With bows however, you could become better and better based off your strength stat. With bows, you had to draw the string back and notch the arrow, that was the additional skill coming into play, the players strength stats. Bows had base stats but to have the end stats of the weapon it's combined with the players strength stat. Dioux's strength stat was high, just like mine as it allowed you to be able to carry more items, but in comparison, his was ridiculously higher because everytime he drew back the bowstring he was leveling it a tiny bit, and he knew that. Dioux spent hours sometimes splitting wood with an axe to make his strength stat rise. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he could karate chop a piece of wood in half.

We've been standing in and standstill for a good two minutes now, and neither one of us was making the first move. I had just started to develop a plan of attack when Dioux had his bow unslung and was notching an arrow all in the process of a second.

I didn't waste anymore time, rushing forward with my sword in my right hand, crossbow in the left. Dioux was at full-draw when I was just starting to run, and I watched his right hands three foremost fingers slowly slide off the drawstring.

" _Now."_ I immediately dropped into a slide. Letting my body fall onto my lower back as my feet swung out in front of me. Feeling the literal force of the arrow zip over my head and bent my knees allowing my heels to catch and propel me back into a standing position.

Using the momentum of the slide I continued forward, leading with my right foot and closing the last couple meters towards Dioux in a bound. Dioux already had his bow reslung and dagger in his hands, we met blades seconds later, my overhand swing coming down to parry off his dagger and slide to the right. Not wasting a second I spun full circle bringing the sword round with me in a deadly crescent, the white blade flying towards Dioux midsection.

I was met with a parry once again, my sword tip catching just barely on the crossguard of his dagger. I pushed down and forward, the sound of metal sliding over metal echoing across the yard as my blade slide up his.

Dioux's strength came into play once again as he was able to disengage our blades and push me back a step. Not wasting anytime he jabbed at my gut, able to get the small blade under my longer sword and stab me in the stomach, sending my health down.

I stepped forward and to the left, his dagger still moving forward along my side and finally out past me, along with the rest of his body. Using my right leg I roundhouse kicked his ankles, the momentum of his stab sending him past me and onto the ground.

Continuing my step and raised my left hand and aimed the crossbow at the now recovering Dioux, pulling the trigger and sending a bolt towards him.

He was quick, rolling backwards as the bolt missed his chest, where I was aiming and taking him in the shoulder as he stood. I watched his health drop a few points as well.

I took the time to pull the string of my crossbow back and load another bolt, bringing it up to firing height again. My eyes widened in terror as I saw Dioux already had his bow unslung and yet another arrow notched, he looked just as surprised that I had my crossbow drawn on him as he had his bow drawn on me.

We fired at the same time, each of us spinning to our rights to frantically try and avoid eachothers projectile. I felt his arrow slide across my shoulder blades and watched my health drop just barely into the yellow, a mere three points of health separating me from the green.

That was the match, I sighed in defeat as I stood back up, hanging my crossbow and sheathing my sword. Standing, I looked towards Dioux, who was also recovering from the frantic dodge. My crossbow bolt was sticking out of his shoulder blade, so I was indeed able to snag a final shot, but my crossbow didn't have the sheer amount of power behind it like his bow did, and thus was not able to land those last few points of damage to allow a draw,

"Son of a… Well, least I didn't miss." I walked towards Dioux breathlessly, a smile on my face.

"Yeah," He responded, reaching out his hand, "Good match… thanks for that, was long overdue."

I shook his hand happily and then we gave eachother a quick shouldered hug, smiles spreading across both our faces. We sat down on the grass of our buildings backyard and leaned against the back of the building, our knees up to our chests and arms laid across them,

"Another good sunset."

I raised an eyebrow in Dioux's direction, but looked beyond him at the new voice and it's owner standing just a few meters away from us.

Dioux and I quickly stood in unison, each falling into a subtle defensive stance,

"Relax, relax." The newcomer said, "I'm one of your neighbors." He pointed towards their home, "I was watching from our side of the building, we do share the backyard y'know."

Dioux and I looked at eachother and eased up a bit, "Sorry," I started, "We didn't mean to take-"

"No, no, that's quite alright." The Newcomer stepped forward a few paces until he was just a foot or so away from us, "I'm Jayak. Nice to meet you guys."

Dioux and I looked down at Jayak's outstretched hand and Dioux was the first to shake it, I followed suit shortly after,

"Dioux."

"Tyzaren."

Jayak smiled at us and nodded, "You guys sure can fight."

I shrugged in response, looking over Jayak and his attire. He looked about the same age as Dioux and I, had short blonde hair, bright blue eyes, a neatly trimmed beard. What was impressive was his armor, it was a full set of shiny platemail, and sticking out from behind his back was the hilt of a greatsword, a helmet hung from its chinstrap on his waist, he was a straight up Paladin.

"Thanks, I like to think we can handle ourselves." Dioux was the first to break the silence, and I smiled in turn,

"I think you'd be right. Anyway I just wanted to say hi, be neighborly, we have been neighbors for the past few weeks anyway, and none of us know each other." Jayak laughed awkwardly, obviously sensing mine and Dioux's reluctance,

"Yeah," I quickly injected, "How many of you guys are there anyway?"

"Three of us. Myself, my brother and a friend. They're out and about right now, but I'm sure you'll meet them soon enough."

"Yeah," I responded, "Definitely."

We said goodbye to Jayak and headed into our side of the building, each heading through the kitchen and towards to stairs,

"He seemed…"

"Buffed out?" I said bluntly,

"Yeah," Dioux said, "Crazy armor. See how crystaline that was?"

"Yeah I did," I started climbing the stairs, "Guess our neighbors are pretty well off."

"Least he said hello." Dioux added as we reached the top of the stairs,

"Right. But did you notice what I did?"

Dioux stopped in the doorway to his room, "His cursor."

I nodded, gripping the hilt of my sword instinctively, "Yeah… A red player."

* * *

 **End Note:**

 **All right! That's all for this chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed! Please, please, please leave a review, I'm all about feedback so I can only get better and bring you guys better content. Also while you're at it, feel free to write up an OC or hit me up with what you guys wanna see.  
Wanna see the DarkerSide of SAO? Wanna throw some romance in there? Maybe a daring heist? Who knows, lemme know, and thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3: Shattered Glass

**Author's Note:**

 **Hey guys! How's it going!? Good! Here's the 3rd Chapter of Shattered Glass, and things are getting real. Realer than real. Not gunna spoil anything, stay tuned near the end for some really important details you'll wanna hear.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing, but any bit of original work is of my own design.**

* * *

It's been another few weeks in the virtual world of Aincrad. And things have been getting tense. Floor 76 has proven to be incredibly difficult to surpass, the path to the dungeon was only just recently discovered and the dungeon itself is a maze so complex from what we've seen before that none of us are really sure where to go from here.

Dioux and I are primarily scouts, we collect map data, monster spawn locations, field boss patrol routes, the works. But lately, we've been coordinating directly with the Assault Team to try and beat this damn game.

The Assault Team is a large team comprised of many guilds and players, all at high levels and skillsets. The Assault Team's main focus is clearing the game so that other players that are lagging behind or are too scared to fight their way out don't get trapped in here, they fight so others don't.

Dioux and I have been doing work for them for the past few months now, ever since floor 67 really. But that was paid work, we weren't part of the Assault Team, we just worked with them, got paid to scout for them and moved on our merry way. Hell, Dioux and I have only participated in two floor boss fights, and those were the 23rd and 25th floors. Field bosses were more our league of doable, considering we were a dynamic duo, not a guild.

In the most recent weeks though, we've been to the Assault Team's base of operations in Arc Sophia 5 out of 7 days of the week, I'd say we're apart of it now.

Currently Dioux and I were making our way back to town, the sun peaking at it's usual perch at noon before it's slow descent throughout the rest of the day. We had left town at four in the morning to scout out some side trails and we nearly walked into a field bosses spawn… twice.

Working in the early morning used to provide a sense of security, a sense of safety since most of the mobs acted on our time schedules, they slept as well, just like NPC's in towns did. But ever since floor 64, the mobs have been getting more irregular with attacks and times when they're active, not to mention how many of them there are, and thus with getting to the last fourth of the games floors, we only assumed things would be harder, but not this hard.

"Tyzaren!"

Dioux's outburst jumped me out of my steady pace and my daydreaming almost instantly. I instinctively unsheathed my sword and rolled to the right, towards Dioux's voice. Coming to a crouch with my sword tipped upwards and frantically scanned the area… it was empty, some passive mobs wandering in the distance, grazing on the cliffside, but generally uninhabited,

"What the hell dude." I sheathed my sword and threw my hands up in protest,

"What the hell is right," Dioux pointed at his feet, there was a large fissure cutting through the hillside in front of us, "You didn't see that!? You nearly walked into it!"

I sighed and sat down, falling onto my back and moaning, "I'm sorry… Thanks."

I heard Dioux walk over and sit next to me, his cape blowing in the slight breeze towards my chest, "What, were you daydreaming?"

"Yeah, you could say that," I sat up and wrapped my arms around my knees, "Just thinking y'know? It's been a long time since we landed here on floor 76 and we've just made it too the dungeon."

Dioux grunted, "We knew it'd be tougher getting this high, and besides, other floors have been longer."

I shrugged and sighed again, "Guesso…" My eyes drifted to the top left of my screen, my health and level, 89, "You think we're adequate levels to be doing this?"

Dioux laughed, "Of course, most of the Assault Team is around level 94, with their top guys being barely 100. Besides, we're just scouts."

"But for how long? I feel since getting to floor 76 we're more part of the Assault Team now than just working for them."

"We don't clear floor bosses," Dioux stated flately, "Not yet anyway. We wanna do that, we'll have to get a bit stronger… and is that what you want to do?"

I laid back down and covered my face with my eyes, "I don't even know if I want to clear the game man…"

In an instant I was yanked upwards, Dioux had his right hand wrapped roughly around the cuff of the neck of my shirt, "Don't talk like that. You know why we have too."

I sighed, shoving him off and hitting the ground with a thud, "Yeah… because we'll die in the real world."

"You were saying just a few weeks ago that we had to, that we had to play the game!"

"I know what I said!" I frowned as I saw Dioux's reaction to how harsh I spoke my words, "I know what I said," I repeated more gently, "But… this world is apart of me, apart of all of us… I don't want to let it go."

Dioux and I didn't speak for awhile, we just stared out at the mobs that were grazing the hillside beyond, up at the clouds that we knew weren't really, real. Stared out towards the dungeon towering upwards in the distance, the spiers of Arc Sophia's watch towers in the opposite direction… it was almost too much to handle. I was ever constantly surprise how we still handled it, knowing that this wasn't real… but it was as real as it got, we could really die if our HP dropped to zero, despite this world being my definition, fake. Despite that… it's ridiculously real, it was all of our lives, it was another world that while we existed in it, and it existed, was real in itself,

"Dioux?"

"Aye?"

"This world is going to disappear once we clear it, yeah?"

"Physically speaking."

"Hmm?"

Dioux looked down at me before looking back up, "Physically speaking, it'll probably be deleted, bit by bit, it's purpose fulfilled. But we'll still remember the horrors of this place, the good times, the bad, the amazing things we did and the bad things we had to do. The people we met, the ones we lost? We'll have all that forever, and because of that, I feel that's why we need to clear the game even more, because of all those that have been lost, and so that this nightmare, which it is, can be over and be nothing more than a memory, a piece of shattered glass from a broken mirror, no longer able to project a reflection…"

I sat up slowly and just stared blankly at Dioux, "That was philosophical."

Dioux shrugged, "My mom wanted me to be a lawyer."

"What does that have to do with being philosophical?"

"Nothing."

* * *

"So that's it? Just two more field bosses?"

Dioux and I stood with arms crossed in the center of the Assault Team's headquarters. The central floor was used as their lobby and debrief area, we were in the center of the main room, a large circular room with a planning table opposite the entrance. Around the table stood various guild leaders, guild XO's, or other high level players. Several other players were marching in or through the room, handing in reports or moving onto other rooms,

"Yeah, 'That's it'." I said flately, "Y'know that's actually more useful than you think-"

"Noted." I was cut off by a player of the Holy Dragon Alliance, one of the top three guilds, "Thanks for your help, you guys know where you can pick up your payment, I'm sending a message… done, that's all."

Dioux placed his hands on his hips and looked down, tapping his foot, "Looks like we're not 'apart' of the Assault Team after all."

I nodded as we turned around, "Whatever, you said yourself we need to get stronger."

We made our way back out into Arc Sophia's streets and towards the teleport district. When we were halfway there I reached my hands up and stretched,

"Alright man, I can pick this one up, I know how much you hate Algade."

Dioux let out a small sigh of relief, "Thanks man. You sure?"

I nodded, continuing down the street, "Definitely, say hey to Liz for me, yeah?"

He crossed his arms as I got further and further away, and just waved instead of responding. I smiled and waved back before turning back down the street and continuing towards the teleport gate.

* * *

"There's your payment in full."

I hit the accept key and the selected amount of Col started pooling into my inventory… it wasn't anything spectacular, I could probably buy a chair with the amount the Assault Team paid the two of us,

"Thanks Agil." I closed my inventory screen and smiled at the large man behind the counter,

"Of course, hard earned pay for hard work." Agil smiled back, his huge figure coming a good three feet over his shop counter, a large battleaxe hilt sticking over his shoulder, green plated armor contrasting his dark skin and bald head nicely. It was funny really how such a tank was working out of a shop in the alleys of Algade, and siding as the Assault Teams discreet payoff man.

I started for the door, "I'll probably see you around, thanks again Agil."

I heard him grunt in response from behind me as I made for the door. I reached out for the door handle when it suddenly flew open. A bit shocked I looked up at two players on the other side of the door, one a female, wearing white and red. Another a male, wearing all black. I stood at least a few inches taller than them both, and the female was easily recognizable, she was Asuna Lightning Flash, second in command… well, now leader of the Knight of The Blood Oath. The male however, I didn't know who he was.

I stepped to the side as they came inside and nodded to the female player, Asuna, out of respect really, but disregarding the man in black. I stepped towards the door again and turned around to close it when the man in black turned around,

"What kind of weapon is that?"

I looked at him surprised, my hand dropping to my sword, "Uh, it's just a one-handed sword. I have a durosteel alloy smithed into-"

"Not the sword." The man in black walked a bit closer, "The one on your other hip, what kind of weapon is it?"

I was shocked. My crossbow? My coat covered my crossbow from almost all prying eyes. Unless it was windy or I moved my coat out of the way, it was nearly impossible to spot it. And if he spotted it when I was walking out of their way… His search and perception skill must've been incredibly high, so much so that I wouldn't think twice that he was paranoid or something.

I finally collected myself, picked my jaw up off the ground and responded, "Uh. It's… It's a crossbow."

The black swordsman stepped forward again, "Right, but aren't crossbows two handed weapons that rest on your back?"

"Alright, so it's a hand crossbow." I narrowed my eyes towards this stranger and his curiosity,

"A hand crossbow? That's new."

"Not really." I interrupted, "They're more common than you think, so much that it's not even a Unique skill, just an extra one. I've ran into a couple other players who have them as well. I can't say what exactly unlocks the skill but I mean, it rolls nicely with one-handed weapons. Hell, I even met a guy who dual-wielded them, that was-"

A screen appeared in front of me,

 **YOU'VE BEEN CHALLENGED TO A DUEL.**

I sighed, "Really? Right here?"

In the background Agil started laughing and Asuna had one hand on her hip and the other on her forehead. The black swordsman didn't respond either, his sword was already unsheathed and he was in a fighting stance,

"Alright…"

I hit accept and agreed to his terms, double checking to make sure that we wouldn't end up killing one or the other. A sixty second prep timer appeared in between us and I unsheathed my sword, leaving my crossbow on my hip. I then checked to make sure it was loaded and opened up my message screen… forty seconds left. I messaged Dioux real quick, skimming over the details of,

" _Dueling a black swordsman outside Agil's place. Asuna the Lightning Flash is here as a spectator. Stranger things have happened?"_

Ten seconds… I braced myself, putting most of my weight on my left foot, and shifting my right in front of me, ready to leap forward. I brought my sword up in front of me, and my left arm bent as well, ready to strike or grab my crossbow if need be.

The timer hit zero and the starting bell dinged across the area. I leapt forward, not preparing a sword skill unlike my opponent, giving me a second or two over him on the approach. Despite the fact that I lurched forward first, he closed incredibly fast. I readied my quickest sword skill, it powering up in less that a second and we crossed swords.

The momentum behind his swing was ridiculous. Both are swords were sent backwards, our arms heading above our heads. Using the momentum I brought the sword backwards and around to the right side of my opponent's body… Only he did the exact same thing! He both swung wide of the other and came back facing eachother, a confused look on both our faces.

He gave no ground, not wasting even half a second before jumping back towards me. I frantically jumped backwards and got caught on the tip of his blade, sending my health points down a few more than I would have liked.

I landed and rushed forward, charging a sword skill. My opponent rushed forward as well, and was preparing to block it. I lunged the tip of my sword forward and the game world was a blur for a split second as I rocketed forward, the lunge skill closing the last few feet almost instantly.

With almost impossible speed he dodged my lunge, I didn't even get close to stabbing him, instead grazing his arm and doing minimal damage.

Still flying forwards from the lunge, I rolled mid air with a quick push from the left foot of the ground and wiped my crossbow out, aiming it at him and firing.

That got better results, the bolt burying itself in his collar bone and doing a decent amount of damage… It was then I realized how much higher a level this player must be, how much more health he must've had. I frowned as I look at my odds.

The next few minutes passed in a rapid session of parries and dodging with the occasional futile shot from my crossbow, I was horribly outmatched and getting closer and closer to the yellow.

He came forward again, sword point angled for my chest. I sidestepped to the left as the tip scraped my side and grabbed the collar of his jacket, pulling him closer and spinning him around, his entire chest exposed.

I pressed my crossbow against his stomach and pulled the trigger as he jumped backwards, the bolt penetrating the center mass of his stomach. I smiled, hoping to score a win but then frowned when I saw that out of all the scrapes and taps I managed to score on him, his health wasn't even down maybe more than a quarter.

In my disappointment I didn't notice the tip of his sword spiralling towards my neck. As I started to backbend away from the sword, I felt it's cold touch scrape across my upper chest and watched the top right of my screen as my health plummeted into the yellow, far too close to the red for my liking.

Rolling backwards and coming to a stand the victory words appeared in front of my opponent and I immediately pulled a health potion from my inventory and started drinking it.

Agil came away from the walls of his shop and was clapping along with laughing something fierce. Lightning flash following closely behind him, looking unamused.

I sheathed my sword and holstered my crossbow, pulling my coat up around me and sighing as I walked forward towards the black swordsman, "Good match. You were holding back in the beginning weren't you?"

The swordsman smiled, "How'd you know?"

I shrugged, "After I got that first shot off, the match was pretty one-sided."

He sheathed his sword and placed his hands on his hips, "Yeah, well, I wasn't expecting such a challenge. It's hard to size someone's level at first glance."

I shrugged again and crossed my arms, turning to face Agil and Asuna, "Thanks for being an enthused audience. And it's a honor to meet you, Lightning Flash." I bowed my head briefly before standing upright again,

"Nice to meet you, it's my understanding you're one of the scouts the Assault Team uses for various tasks?"

"That's right," I said nodding, "Me and my friend Dioux work together."

"He fight anything like you do?" Agil chimed in this time,

"Not really, he's an Archer." At first I almost kicked myself for revealing Dioux's combat style… but the giant longbow on his back told anyone who saw him anyway, so I shrugged it off, besides, his dagger is always neatly concealed behind his cape.

Agil nodded with a raise of the eyebrow, "Never figure any type of ranged weapons would be in SAO when we first got here, huh?"

I shrugged, "I didn't figure magic would be either, but crystals are basically that, and sword skills are definitely 'magical' in their own way."

Agil nodded in agreement and smirked, I turned back to the black swordsman, "My names Tyzaren. Thanks for the duel, hope you don't mean to kill me later."

The swordsman reached out his hand but then pulled back quickly, "W-what? Why would I do that? I'm not a red-"

"I'm kidding," I interjected, "At least I hope, why else would you have dueled me rather than to size up how you'd fare against a crossbow?"

The swordsman shrugged, "I always like a challenge, new things interest me."

"Yeah okay." I smiled and shook his hand.

"I'm Kirito by the way, Solo." He crossed his arms with a slight hint of pleasure as my jaw went ajar and the name clicked in my head.

Kirito? _The_ Black Swordsman? The Duel Wielder? The only one in existence? The one who fought against Commander Heathcliff? Also known as Akihiko Kayaba? I was shocked, I knew he was on the Assault Team… but damn, here? He's here with Lightning Flash? Why are they here to see Agil?

"I. Uh, I… It's a honor, Black Swordsman."

"Right, well, thanks again for the match, you should think about fighting on the Assault Team, we could use some ranged fighters."

I smiled and was about to say my goodbyes when the air around us was split by an heart wrenching scream,

"KIIIIIIRRRRRRIIIIIITOOOOOOO~!"

We all turned in shock towards the voice, only to reveal Lisbeth running down the street with a massive smile on her face, following shortly behind was Dioux.

Lisbeth ran up to Kirito and wrapped her arms around him with a laugh, and he looked slightly embarrassed. Dioux came behind and looked at me with a raised eyebrow, I just shrugged in response,

"Hey Tyzaren!"

I smiled and waved politely at Lisbeth, "Hello Liz. Funny seeing you here."

Asuna stepped forward now, "Wait, you know Liz and… this other player?"

"Yeah that's Dioux, and Lisbeth does a lot of maintenance on our gear in her shop on floor 76."

"Has everybody moved to floor 76 now!?"

All heads turned towards Agil with a smile as we all saw the look on his face.

-

 **End Note:**

 **Alright! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and the influx of character introductions! Things are getting pretty real as the team only gets closer to finding the boss on floor 76 yeah?  
Reviews are ALWAYS appreciated because I always want to get better for you guys. Thanks again guys!**


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